"Doctor Faustus" Act 2 Scene 1: The Contract sceneWe will be reading this scene together - we missed it last week. After we have, make notes together about:
- How Faustus makes the contract
- How Marlowe shows us his uncertainty about it
- The role of Mephistophilis and the angels in the scene.
Explorative Study:
Compare Shakespeare and Marlowe’s treatment of human desire in "Hamlet" and "Doctor Faustus". This should include reference to performance criticism and critical interpretation as well as the significance and influence of the contexts in which the plays were written.
Approximate word count: 1800
Go to here to Edexcel to see the four Assessment Objectives for the Explorative Study again. This links to the Specification - go to pages 24-25 to see the Objectives for your coursework.
Brainstorm
Work with a partner to identify how Shakespeare treats human desire in "Hamlet". Think about:
- Hamlet's desire for the truth and for justice
- Hamlet's desire to hide his purpose in an 'antic disposition' (pretend madness)
- Hamlet's desire for death
- The Ghost's desire for revenge
- Hamlet's desire to know what to do in his situation and how he deals with it
- Claudius' desire for power
- Claudius' greed for the throne and how he tries to hang on to it
- Claudius' guilt
- Gertrude's desires to avoid the truth
- Laertes' desire for revenge compared to Hamlet's
- Hamlet and Ophelia's desires for each other and how these are approached
- Ophelia's stifled desires under the command of her father
- Fortinbras' desire for national expansion and conquest
- Horatio's desires to help Hamlet and to kill himself at the end
Think also about: lust, passion, power, treachery, guilt, deception, conscience, madness.
Find quotations to go with your ideas from the play.
Homework
- Compete any final working on your Creative Critical Response
- Develop your brainstorm on "Hamlet"
Image: Old Hamlet's Ghost.
